Improvement



A. ARMSTRONG.

- l Corn-Plantelff. No. 58045. ,l rammed sept xs, 1866;

UNITED STATES PATENT FFTCE.

l AARD)T ARMSTRONG, OF GILLESPIE, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN COMBINED SEEE-DRILL AND CULTIVATOR.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. nla, dated September18, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AARON ARMSTRONG, of Gillespie, in the county ofMacoupin and State of Illinois, have invented a new Combination ofRoller, Corn-Planter, aud Seed-Drill; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description there-ot', referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of referencemarked thereon.

Figure l of the annexed drawings is a top plan of the roller,corn-planter, and seed-drill; and Fig. 2, a vertical longitudinalsection through the axis of one of the planters.

The object of this invention is to produce an implement that willcombine all the requisites of the roller, the corn-planter, and theseed-drill in one simple machine, the parts of which are so constructedand arranged with reference to each other and to the whole machine thateither the corn-planter and roller, or the seed-drill and the roller,may be used l together to the exclusion of the rest of the machine; orthe corn-planter and seed-drill may both be removed from the machine,and a knife or knives fastened to the roller to be used in cutting oldcorn-stalks from the iield to prepare the ground for tillage.

To enable those skilled-in the art to make and use my machine, I willproceed to describe its construction and operation.

The frame A, to which all other parts of the machine are attached; isnearly balanced on the axle of the roller the preponderance of theweight being forward ot` theaXle. On the forward end of this frame aretwo hoppers, C C, into which the seed-corn is placed, and from which itis distributed by automatic machinery or by hand, as may be desired.Below the hoppers C C is a roller, D, which is actuated by the belt apassing around the wheel c on its outer end, and the wheel d on theouter end of the axle of the roller B. The Wheel d is a loose one, andis putin motion by being thrown up by means ofthe leverfa gainst theclutch-wheel d', which is fastened to the axle of the roller andrevolves with it.

There are two or more cavities, g, made in the periphery of the rollerD, directly beneath the mouths ofthe hoppers (l, which, at eachrevolution of the roller, are ijlled with corn from the hoppers above,and carried over with the roller and dropped down through the orilice 7iin the false bottom of the hopper, and deposited in the furrows made inthe ground by the markers F F. The cavities g being at regular intervalsaround the periphery of the roller D, of course the corn will be droppedout at regular intervals as the roller revolves. In case the roller Dshould not work well, from any cause whatever, it may be stopped byunshipping the wheel d from the wheel d', andthe corn may then' beplanted by opening the slides I) in the fronts of the hoppers C, whichwill allow the corn to run out of saidhopper over the forward surface ofthe rollers D, and it will only be stopped from ruiming through theoriice h by the interposition of the plate k, which is moved back andforth by the operator seated on the seat S, which is convenient to thelever E, the lower end of which is connected with the plate L. Theoperator, by working the lever E back and forth at his pleasure, maycause the corn to be dropped out into the furrow at any points he maysee t, and thus regulate the distance between the plants.

There is a hopper, G, erected on top of and across the back end or theframe A, which supplies seed to the drills H. A roller, I, similar inconstruction and operation to the roller D, is placed beneath the hopperG. It is driven by means of the belt j, which passes around the wheels dand Z.

The drills H are attached to the auxiliary frame A', which is connectedwith the frame A by means of the pivot fr, which can be removed and theframe A and its drills taken off when the machine is to be used as acoruplanter. In like manner when the inachineis to be used as agrain-drill the markers F F may be removed by taking out the bolts (notshown in the drawings) which fasten them t0 the frame A. Both themarkers and the seeddrills may be removed from the frame and the machineused as a simple roller.

There may be a series of knives, M, fastened to the periphery of theroller B, which will serve to cut old eornstalks from the held by simplydriving the machine over them. When the machine is used as a corri-stalkcutter the cornplanter and seed-drill should both be removed from theframe.

In order to lift the front end of the frameA np while turning thenmoliine around, the leverO is pivoted to the fulorum-postV, andoonneoted with the back end of the pole P by means of the link O, all ofwhich parts are so :irren ged that when the long end of the lever isthrown down by the driver the link-pivot w will be behind the link-pivotw', and in this position the vforward end of the frame A will be raisedup and rest lightly on the necks of the animals which are attached toit.

Having described myinvention, whzitl claim 1. The combination of theroller D with the sliding plate k and lever E, as and for the purposeset forth.

2. The roller B, in combination with the corn-planter C l) 7c F, thestalk-cutter, M, and the seed-drill G I H, when the same are allconstructed upon one common frame, A, from which any of Jche parts,except J@he roller B, may be removed at pleasure.

AARON ARMSTRONG.

'Vitnesses: I

M. RANDOLPH, A. WAGNER.

al n

